The Knoxville Police Department has released the pertinent body-camera footage from the police shooting that happened at the Exxon gas station at 5306 N. Broadway on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.
Just before 5:30 p.m. on April 17, KPD officer Seth Beeler arrived alone at the Exxon on a report that a man, since identified as William Charles McBride Jr., was acting erratically and potentially violently inside of the store. After arriving on scene, Officer Beeler is told by a witness that McBride was armed with a knife. Officer Beeler sees that McBride was armed with two knives and at least one customer was in the store.
Officer Beeler confronted McBride, who then ran from the store, appeared to swing a knife at the witness and run in Officer Beeler’s direction, at which time shots were fired.
Responding officers started rendering aid to McBride at around 5:33 p.m. KFD medical personnel arrived at the scene approximately one minute later.
A link to the video can be found here. The video starts when Officer Beeler arrives on scene and ends after he is removed from the immediate scene of the shooting. The video shows graphic images that could be disturbing to some viewers and viewer discretion is advised.
The shooting is being investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, per standard protocol, while the KPD’s Office of Professional Standards is also conducting an internal administrative investigation. Both of those investigations are still ongoing. Officer Beeler remains on routine administrative leave.
Per department policy, in the event of a critical incident, the Office of Public Information in coordination with the Technical Services Unit and other appropriate department personnel, will immediately begin preparing a video of said incident for public release. The purpose of the video release is to inform the community of the circumstances that led to the incident in a timely fashion. The department strives to release critical incident video to the public as expeditiously as possible, in coordination with District Attorney General Charme Allen and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.